


Love Like This

by kaizuka



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Memory Loss, Temporary Character Death, a lil angst at the beginning but honestly edges mostly towards fluff, loosely based on tsubasa reservoir chronicle's premise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 13:26:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15535239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaizuka/pseuds/kaizuka
Summary: “It’s…” Shiro begins, and Keith’s smile grows wider, already anticipating Shiro’s next words.It’s good to be back,Shiro will say, and Keith will help him up and into the lion and maybe find out the rest of what Shiro had been trying to say earlier--“It’s nice to see a friendly face, but…” Shiro begins instead, and Keith’s smile turns bemused. But it’s Shiro’s next words that make Keith think he would have been better off with the lion tearing Keith’s heart straight out of his chest with glowing claws in exchange for Shiro’s life.“Who are you?” Shiro continues, and Keith feels like the bottom has dropped off his entire world.Memory Loss AU; Keith exchanges Shiro's memories of him in order to save Shiro's life, and must work to recollect them in order for Shiro to remember him and the bond they shared.





	Love Like This

**Author's Note:**

> This is loosely based off of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle's premise of memories and searching for memory feathers, inspired by an ask I saw on arahir's (on tumblr) blog. It doesn't follow TRC's plotline--mostly just in regards to memory loss and gaining them back in physical form. Also loosely based off of what Ahiru does for Mytho in Princess Tutu? Though with much less angst and pain in the end.
> 
> If you haven't checked either of those series out, I definitely recc them! TRC is a major fave!
> 
> *some spoilers for s7

The day that Shiro forgets him is the day Keith watches his best friend die. Again.

He’s cradling Shiro in his arms, bent over the man and pressing Shiro into his chest as if to salvage the last dregs of life currently draining away from the one person he cared for most.  
Keith’s eyes are glued to Shiro’s face, watching in building horror as Shiro’s eyes drift in and out of focus. They remain on Keith’s face though, and it’s obvious that the last of Shiro’s energy is channeled into keeping Keith within his line of sight. It’s breaking Keith into pieces. 

The ground rumbles beneath them, the roars of the other lions breaking through Keith’s hazy thoughts every now and then. Black remains close by, dormant and waiting for her Paladins, and Keith is terrified that it’s just going to be him returning to the lions, alone again. 

Again and again and again--Shiro seems to always slip within an inch of his grasp, but Keith has always been able to grab him back to safety every single time.

But it seems there’s a limit to these things, and as much as Keith hates to think about it, even he might have to admit that Shiro’s time is up.

 _No, it isn’t._ Keith grits his teeth, mentally slapping himself back to his senses. _I’ve always been able to save him. This time won’t be any different._

“Shiro,” he croaks, and he curses himself for sounding so scared and unsure. “Shiro. Hey, you with me?”

Shiro smiles then, and Keith winces at the trickle of blood that slips down the corner of his mouth. “Hey, buddy.” He grins wider, and Keith lets out a sob. “I guess I should have listened to you, huh?”

Keith lets out a parody of a laugh that sounds more like a broken cry than anything else. “Yeah. If you wanted to get out on the front lines, you could have just ridden with me. I could have used a co-pilot.”

“Hm.” Shiro’s eyes finally slip away from Keith’s face to drift across the battlefield. They’d gotten word of Galra forces amassing in this section of the galaxy, but even Keith hadn’t realized the extent of their numbers. Now, Keith desperately wishes he could go back to hours before they’d gotten the warning, wishing he could look himself straight in the eye and tell him to make Shiro stay behind, even if it had to have been by force. 

Instead, the moment the battle had started, Keith had been shocked to receive a comm from Shiro, riding in an accompanying rebel aircraft. The man had grinned jauntily at him from the screen, and Keith had smiled back, even if he cursed Shiro’s desire to do good, to want to fight with his team no matter the cost. 

Then the aircraft had tripped a mine and was sent flying into a thousand different pieces. Keith wanted to curse the pilot, whoever it had been (definitely not Shiro, because Shiro wouldn’t have tripped the mine, Keith’s sure of it) but a part of him knew that wouldn’t have been fair--the pilot was most likely dead, anyway. It was a callous thought, but with a dying man in his arms, Keith’s only other thought was that he was grateful Shiro had survived.

But apparently not for long.

Shiro’s eyes refocus on Keith, and Keith leans forward, bumping their helmets together. It’s so, so cruel. He can recall the last time he’d hovered over Shiro, watching as the man drifted away from the land of the living. This time feels so much worse, because it’s happening _now_ , and there’s nothing separating them. Keith isn’t inhibited by the barrier of a healing pod now, and since he can press a hand to the chest plate of Shiro’s armor, he does. Keith’s gloved fingers dig against the material, desperately wanting to feel the thrum of Shiro’s heartbeat.  
“When we get back,” Keith says slowly, watching from behind his own helmet as the glass fogs from the heat of his breath, “you’re going to have the teach me about this Monsters and Mana game you and Lance were talking about a couple days ago.”

Shiro beams at him at that. His hand flies clumsily upwards in attempt to grasp Keith’s arm, but it only bumps against Keith’s helmet weakly before flopping back down by his side. 

“Sure,” Shiro says. A cough follows, and Keith fights back a groan at the spittle of blood that flecks his helmet’s visor. “My character’s really cool. I made my own this time. I’m a Paladin.”

“I’m sure he’s great,” Keith replies, running his hand up and down Shiro’s chest soothingly. Something crackles nearby, and his eyes fly up to take in the battered remains of what had been Shiro’s new prosthetic. 

_Life is so, so unfair._

_Why couldn’t it have been me?_

Shiro’s eyes begin to close, and Keith’s breath stutters. “Shiro? Shiro.” He barely refrains himself from violently shaking Shiro’s prone form, but what else is there for him to do? Keith’s best friend is going to be gone, and Keith isn’t sure how can take Shiro’s loss yet again. “Shiro, I need you to _keep your eyes open._ ”

“Tired,” Shiro mumbles. His eyes flicker open, passing across Keith’s face almost lazily, before sliding shut again. “You’re so good to me.” His hand finds Keith, and Keith presses Shiro’s fingers up against his helmet in a tragic parody of a kiss. 

“I hope you know…” Shiro says, voice trailing off. “I need you to know… that I lo…”  
Keith clenches Shiro’s hand tighter, nearly yelling in his desperation. “You need me to know what? You _what?_ Shiro!”

His voice raises into a bellow, the force of his cry bending him forwards. “ _Open your fucking eyes!_ ”

Silence. 

Keith doesn’t have to open his eyes to know that Shiro has drifted away. The body against him no longer moves with ragged breaths, and Shiro’s hand in Keith’s is completely limp. 

There’s a crackle in his helmet comms, and Keith can faintly hear Allura calling out to him, desperately crying out to know whether he and Shiro are okay.

The other paladins echo her questions, their voices growing louder and more panicked. The sounds of fighting are beginning to dwindle, and Keith faintly hopes that it’s because they’re winning. 

Either way, it doesn’t really matter to Keith anymore. He lifts his face from Shiro’s chest to bump their foreheads together forlornly. 

“Shiro…” Keith breathes, curling in on himself. He needs to get up. He needs to reconvene with the other paladins, and he needs to act like the leader he is. But Shiro’s in his arms, and Keith has lost him for what it seems like the millionth time. 

Something moves in his peripherals, and Keith snarls. His galra blade shines, extending into its full dangerous edge as a warning to the intruder. He doesn’t care about anything anymore, but he sure as hell isn’t letting anyone get even remotely close to Shiro’s body. 

Keith’s eyes flick up, already becoming lost in a red haze of loss and anger. But what he sees has him faltering, and the galra blade shrinks in on itself in response to Keith’s wordless shock.  
Near him and Shiro sits a lion that looks as if it’s made of light. Its fur is a shimmering white glow, and it stares at Keith with gleaming golden eyes. It’s about the size of a regular lion and looks nearly just as organic, save for its radiance. Everything about it is completely unnatural. 

_He is dying._

Keith freezes, mouth gaping. The voice had lanced through his mind, soft and gentle, but laced with a heavy underlying forcefulness.

The lion narrows its eyes at him. _He is dying,_ the voice repeats, and Keith knows without another moment’s thought that it’s the lion voice.

“He’s already dead,” he replies, because he’s finally lost it. Keith is facing a talking, glowing lion. But then again, he flies a giant magical robotic lion and forms a giant human-like weapon with four other people, so honestly who is he to even question anything within this galaxy anymore? “He’s dead, and there’s nothing I can do.”

The lion remains unmoving, its eyes eerily still and trained on Keith’s face. _What would you do to save him?_

Keith laughs, and doesn’t care if he’s being rude to the magical lion. “Anything. I’ve done everything and anything, and I’d still do it time and time again. But it’s never enough.” 

Finally the lion moves, padding forward to sit in front of Keith and Shiro. It bares its teeth, and Keith bares his own right back in challenge. _I can save him,_ comes the lion’s voice again, and it’s terribly gentle sounding, despite the low growl beginning to rumble from lion’s throat. _But only if you are willing to forfeit something dear to you._

Keith glares. “I’m not giving up my mom. Or any of my team. I’ll find another way to save Shiro, if you’re only going to try to kill other people.”

 _Not kill._ The lion huffs then, and it’s almost funny how frustrated it sounds. It’s a _lion._ _Trade something else. Something of great value to you. Not a life, but…_

“I’ll give anything. If it’s a life you need, though, then it has to be mine.” Keith clutches Shiro even closer.

 _Not a life,_ the lion repeats, and a huge paw comes up to bat Keith’s helmet. 

“ _Ow._ ”

_Listen. Something of great value. Time is ticking. Do you accept?_

Keith scowls. “Fine, take it. Just take it, I don’t care. Just hurry up.”

The lion stands and shakes itself out. _Very well._

It stares him down, unblinking. _No regrets later for your choice, I hope._ One huge paw comes up to rest on Shiro’s chest, and Keith bites back a reprimand and the urge to jerk Shiro away. 

Something beneath its paw glows, and Keith can only watch it awe as light begins to dart up and away into the unfamiliar planet’s atmosphere. He reaches a hand out in hopes of catching one, and while a few shards of light pass through his hands, ghostlike, one single, tiny shard finds itself caught between Keith’s fingers. He stares down at it, dumbfounded. 

_Not all is lost,_ the lion says, and when Keith turns to look at it, he finds that he can barely see its white light through the tears stinging at his eyes. 

“What?” 

_If you search, you can rekindle that which had been lit._ The lion shakes itself out again, casting Keith one last look before turning and padding away. _You can piece back together what was once whole._

“I don’t understand,” Keith says, voice cracking. “What did you _do?_ ”

 _Saved him,_ is the last thing Keith faintly hears, before huge metal paws alight onto the darkened soil next to him, jarring him back into reality. Three more follow suit, and soon enough Keith finds himself within a semi-circle of the Voltron paladins and their lions. 

The hiss of metal sliding open glides through the air, and Keith watches hazily as his friends leap out of the lions’ maws, making a beeline for him and Shiro. 

“Keith! Shiro!” Pidge cries, and kicks dust up violently when she skids to a halt next to Keith. All at once, the Paladins are bent over the black paladins, faces paling as soon as they take in the serene blankness of Shiro’s expression, and the devastation in Keith’s.

“Is he…” Lance begins quietly. His face is going blotchy with the telltale sign of tears, and Keith looks away, knowing his own face must look much, much worse.

“He…” Keith trails off, grief and confusion warring on two equal sides within him. Had he just hallucinated the lion? No one else seemed to have noticed anything amiss, and a bright glowing lion would have been difficult to miss. Keith’s mouth twists. He’d probably hallucinated the whole thing out of sorrow. 

Then Shiro shifts in his arms, and Keith’s heart nearly flies up and out of his chest.  
The man groans, and Keith’s cry of relief is almost drowned out by the cries of his friends, who squeeze in closer together, shoulders and helmets bumping. Keith finds he doesn’t mind in the least. 

“Hey, buddy,” Hunk says, already sobbing. Keith grins, his own smile watery.  
“Looks like you had another close call,” Lance adds, his arm coming up to wipe at his eyes. He scowls to himself when he remembers he has a helmet on. “I knew you’d pull through. You’re way too strong!”

Shiro laughs then, his eyelids fluttering weakly. “Wow. What a welcome committee. What happened?”

“You had a little bump,” Keith says, smiling as Shiro’s eyes flick towards him. “But it’s so, _so_ good to have you back.”

Shiro’s mouth opens and closes wordlessly as his eyes rove over Keith’s face. 

“It’s…” Shiro begins, and Keith’s smile grows wider, already anticipating Shiro’s next words. _It’s good to be back,_ Shiro will say, and Keith will help him up and into the lion and maybe find out the rest of what Shiro had been trying to say earlier--

“It’s nice to see a friendly face, but…” Shiro begins instead, and Keith’s smile turns bemused. But it’s Shiro’s next words that make Keith think he would have been better off with the lion tearing Keith’s heart straight out of his chest with glowing claws in exchange for Shiro’s life. 

“Who are you?” Shiro continues, and Keith feels like the bottom has dropped off his entire world.

 

 

 

X X X

 

 

 

 

The price the white lion had taken had been Shiro’s memories. 

Keith watches dully as Shiro grins at Hunk, bumping the other man’s arm in jest as he jokes about the towering plate of food goo Hunk had fashioned from one of the kitchens in one of the rebel cruisers. 

Strike that--the price the lion had asked for, and taken, had been Shiro’s memories of _Keith_. And only Keith.

No regrets later for your choice, I hope, the lion had said. 

Keith had no regrets. But watching Shiro smile from across the room sent a new type of loss lancing through Keith’s chest. 

“Who are you?” Shiro had asked, and the other paladins had gone still, shock emanating from them in waves. 

Keith had nearly bit his tongue trying to force the words out. “I’m Keith. I fly the black lion for Voltron.”

Shiro’s eyes had narrowed then, and Keith’s heart had broken. He had _never_ been on the receiving end of one of Shiro’s wary stares, not for a long time. This was no clone--this was Shiro, one hundred percent truly himself. “But I’m the black paladin,” Shiro had replied, and his eyes had flicked to Allura’s horrified stare. “...Aren’t I?”

Since then, after having been patched up, Shiro had maintained a careful distance from Keith. He treated Keith with the same amount of politeness and hospitality he gave to rebels he did not know well, and it was killing Keith over and over again. 

The crates shake twice as two people leap on, squeezing next to him on the tiny surface. Without looking, Keith already knew it was Lance and Pidge from the way they whisper hastily to each other, low and urgent. Not a moment later, an arm swings over to rest on Keith’s shoulders, and Pidge’s head bumps against his arm. 

“How are you holding up?” Lance says tentatively, in a rare show of empathy towards Keith. Keith holds back a derisive snort, knowing full well that this was his team probably trying to make up for the way they’d behaved the _last_ time he’d lost Shiro. 

He appreciates it, but there’s still a hollow feeling in his chest as Shiro smiles over at Allura, beckoning her over to try a bite of his food goo. 

“I’m great. Perfectly fine,” Keith replies, and winces when his voice comes out completely flat.  
Pidge coughs, seemingly at a loss for anything to say. “...you didn’t seem too surprised at Shiro’s memory loss. Did something happen?”

He recalls the white lion, and doesn’t even know where to begin. “He just… woke up like that.” Keith ducks his head, tearing his eyes away from Shiro’s broad back. “I’m sure his memory will come back to him soon.” He doubts it, though. 

Pidge shifts uneasily next to him. “But isn’t it weird that it’s only you he’s forgotten?” she asks, insistent. But from the wavering in her voice, it’s apparent she knows what asking might do to Keith. Still, Keith understands. The more they figure out, the better the chance they have at fixing the problem. 

“What if you were to sit down with him and just… kind of remind him of you?” Lance suggests tentatively. “You know, stories. There have to be a lot of stories of you two, right?”  
Keith nods. There _are_ stories he could tell Shiro, endless anecdotes of how the man had helped Keith through the darkest point in his life, how Shiro had guided Keith into a new love for flying and space, and how Keith had been able to branch out on his own and find himself within the time he had gotten to know Shiro. 

He stands from the crate, jostling Lance and Pidge. Behind him, Pidge begins to drone on about medical facts regarding memory loss, but Keith has all but tuned her out, his eyes trained on Shiro. The lion had taken Shiro’s memories of Keith away, but that didn’t mean that all was lost--the lion had said so. ‘Piece back together what was once whole’, or something. 

Keith strides towards Shiro, the first bits of hope gathering in his chest for the first time in hours.  
He completely regrets it moments later when he sits down with Shiro in a secluded portion of the rebel camp. Not a second after Keith found himself midway through telling Shiro about the first time they had met, Shiro doubles over, yelling out in pain as he clutches at his head, eyes wide and unseeing.

Keith can only look on in horror and self-disgust as Shiro groans. He’d caused Shiro pain, inflicted a hurt that Keith had sworn he would never do, not to Shiro. 

Krolia finds him hunched over behind the black lion’s paw hours later, forehead pressed to the wolf, who had appeared next to him the instant Keith had left Shiro’s side. She crouches down next to him, passing a gentle hand through her son’s mussed hair. Shiro was okay, she tells him, only that the man had gotten up not long after Keith had left, good as new, and with no memory of the minutes before. 

Keith turns his head away into his wolf’s fur, unwilling to expose his stinging eyes to his mother.

 

 

 

 

X X X

 

 

 

A full day passes, and Keith finds himself leaping out of the cot in the black lion almost immediately upon awakening. He’d offered the black lion’s quarters to Shiro the day after he’d tried to (painfully, and in vain) jog Shiro’s memory of him, but the other man had merely smiled. 

“There’s something I’m missing here, but I trust my team,” Shiro had said, hand coming up to rest on Keith’s shoulder. (Keith heart crumbled yet again). “If they say you’re the leader, then obviously I need to trust in that. You’re a part of my team now too, it seems.” Shiro had motioned to his arm, once again missing a prosthetic. “Besides, I got another one of these in production. I’ll relinquish my baby to you for now.” He’d grinned, nudging Keith in jest, and Keith had longed to throw his arms around Shiro in an uncharacteristic show of affection. But he hadn’t. 

Now, Keith makes his way out after preparing for the morning, fixing the sheathe on his belt as he ambles out onto the brown soil of the planet they’d currently set base upon. They were in between missions, and as far as Keith knew, the temporary peace could last another day or extend even beyond that. He almost wished for something, anything, to distract him from the hole in his chest. 

As it was, Keith settles for attempting yet again to teach his wolf how to play fetch. The space canine could teleport and seemed intelligent beyond measure, but Keith, for the life of him, could never teach the damn thing to bring back a stick. Maybe it was just as well, Keith thinks with a bemused smile, watching the wolf roll over on its back and pointedly ignore the stick lying on the ground a few feet away. He would rather have _this_ companion than a simple earth dog. 

Still, it couldn’t hurt to try. And it took Keith’s mind off of… other things anyway.  
Keith’s mid plea, hands on his knees as he calls for the wolf to pick up the “damned stick” when he catches a movement out of the corner of his eye. Keith’s head turns almost infinitesimally, a sort of creeping horror crawling up at the back of his neck, mortified that anyone would see him like this. If it was Lance, Keith was more than willing to gag the guy and threaten him within an inch of his life not to spread the fact that Keith was nearly on his hands and knees, begging a cosmic wolf to play fetch with him.

It’s not Lance. Keith isn’t sure if that makes him feel better, or worse.  
Shiro stares at him, head cocked as his eyes flick back and forth between Keith and his wolf. The smile growing on his face has Keith’s cheeks heating up, and he stands, clearing his throat nervously. “Um.”

“He doesn’t want to listen, huh?” Shiro asks, making his way over to stand next to Keith. “Stubborn, that one. He never listens when I try.” Shiro frowns then. “It’s a mystery to me, just as much of a mystery as to where the little guy came from, I guess.”

Keith frowns at the ground. 

The wolf bounds over, flickering out of existence midway and reappearing at Shiro’s side, leaning up against the man to sniff at his face. Shiro laughs, and Keith blinks, recalling a time where Keith and Shiro had both attempted to teach the wolf to fetch. They’d groaned at each other in consternation, before breaking out into laughter when the wolf had teleported onto Keith’s chest, whining worriedly at the change in Keith’s tone. 

Now, though, Keith fights to stop himself from making a single noise, content to merely watch Shiro and the wolf mess around. Shiro’s hand roughly ruffles the wolf’s fur one last time before he turns to Keith. 

“So, Keith,” Shiro begins again once the wolf has wandered away, intent on exploring the next interesting thing, “where are you from? What’s your story?”

Keith opens his mouth, then closes it without another word. What the hell is he supposed to say that doesn’t send Shiro into another fit of pain? Shiro grins, and the planet’s wind blows lightly at their hair. Keith watches absently as Shiro’s white strands float minutely in the breeze, linking them back to the memory of black hair and an unscarred face. 

“I was born on Earth too,” Keith begins slowly. “Found my mom, and found you guys. Not much more to it than that.” He’s trying to be as vague as possible, messing up the timeline purposefully so as not to trigger any memory-related attacks. Seeing it once was enough, and Keith swears to never be the reason Shiro feels pain. 

Shiro was never supposed to suffer because of Keith. 

“Well, aren’t you mysterious too,” Shiro says after a moment's pause, seemingly accepting Keith’s unwillingness to be forthcoming about his past. “I kind of found Voltron and the others too, I guess. After going off on an expedition to Kerberos, we stumbled on the Galra--or they stumbled onto us--and I guess that was the beginning of it all.” 

_I know,_ Keith thinks. He remembers the news the day it had broken, the words _pilot error_ ingrained in his mind for good. _I was there when you were gone._

Shiro stops suddenly. “Sorry. I’m rambling all about myself, aren’t I? I can stop, if you--”

“No!” Keith interjects fiercely, paying no mind to the surprise on Shiro’s face. “I want you to continue. I want to hear more.” And he does. If he can’t have Shiro back, he can at least cherish the time they spend together now, in the present. Keith traces Shiro’s features with his eyes. Because other than the present, what else did Keith have of Shiro now?

Shiro’s cheeks turn red, and Keith falters, realizing he’d pushed himself too close into Shiro’s personal space. He backs off then, but just a little.

“Alright,” the other man says, sounding slightly embarrassed. “I’d be happy to tell you all about it.” There’s a real, genuine smile on Shiro’s face now, and Keith finds himself giving one of his own. It’s the first full grin on Keith’s face in days, since Shiro had lost his memories of Keith.  
They tuck themselves onto the black lion’s paw, and Keith watches reverently as Shiro’s hand waves animatedly as the latter tells Keith of stories that Keith has mostly been a part of. He doesn’t mind though--he just likes watching Shiro talk. 

It’s then that Keith realizes that the trade off was fair. He’d gotten Shiro back, even at some cost to himself. When Shiro nudges Keith’s shoulder playfully, Keith fights back a bashful smile. Bonds could be reforged. Keith was happy enough that Shiro was alive and well. Maybe the idea that ‘not all was lost’ referred to the fact that Keith and Shiro could rekindle their friendship, even without the memories behind them. 

Still, the pang of loss is sharp in Keith’s chest everytime Shiro tells a story that Keith had been involved in. _I was there,_ he wants to say. _I was with you, all throughout the entire ordeal. Or I tried to be, at least. I really tried._

It’s well into dusk when Keith and Shiro decide to part. The wolf stirs beneath their feet as they stretch, having leaned up against hard metal to converse for hours on end. There’s a new softness to Shiro’s expression when he looks at Keith now, and Keith is so, so grateful for it. 

“Since I’ve basically told you my life story,” Shiro says, smiling, “can I just at least ask one question?”

Keith tenses up, wary. The gravel shifts under his feet as he moves in place, steeling himself for another attempt at fudging the truth for Shiro’s safety. “Sure.”

“Well…” Shiro’s eyes move to the belt at Keith’s waist. “I wanted to ask about that knife. I think I caught a glimpse of it that day you rescued me, but I never got a good look. You handy with it?”

Keith grins, because his _skills_ he has no qualms talking about. “Why don’t you be the judge of that? We can spar next time,” he suggests, fingers grasping at the hilt to pull the knife out of its sheath. He’s sparred against Shiro before. Fought against him, even. But one tiny light throughout the entire ordeal meant Keith realized that Shiro not remembering any of Keith’s moves meant that he could impress the other man anew, even in some small way.

 _Pathetic,_ Keith thinks, but he shoves the thought away. He’ll take what he can get.  
Something gleams as he pulls the knife out, and Keith glances down, wondering if he’d accidentally activated it. But instead he finds a little gleaming crystal laying next to the heel of his boot, shining brightly even within the encroaching gloom of the night. Keith freezes, mind flashing back to rays of light shooting off into the atmosphere, and a dying Shiro in his arms. He had caught one, Keith remembered now. But what was it?

“Ah,” Shiro says, dismay coloring his voice. “Did something break off the knife?”  
“No…” Keith replies, picking it up and balancing it between two fingers, gently as he can. “It’s not a part of my knife. But it’s a part of something broken, I think.” He casts a tentative glance at Shiro, who blinks back confusedly.

“Here,” Keith continues, struck by a sudden thought. He thrusts his hand out adamantly, the crystal shard twinkling merrily in the space between them. Keith’s wolf has gone stock still, bright yellow eyes trained on the tiny, shining stone. 

Shiro makes a questioning noise at the back of his throat, but reaches out to take the stone nevertheless. 

They both give a startled shout the second Shiro’s hand finds the crystal--the gleams, brighter than ever before, blinking once, twice, before shooting like a mini comet straight into Shiro’s chest.

 _Oh, fuck,_ Keith thinks, watching in horror as Shiro buckles over, _I fucking did it again._

Keith barely registers that he’s yelling as he stoops to support Shiro’s weight. The man doubles over, wincing, eyes glazed. 

“Shiro,” Keith says, beginning to babble. “Shiro, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking--”

“Keith?” Shiro asks, cutting through Keith’s panicked tirade. His tone effectively shuts Keith up, who freezes when Shiro tilts his head to match Keith’s gaze with his.

“You…” Shiro frowns then. “You were at the Kerberos launch.”

And Shiro collapses into Keith’s chest, who catches Shiro as he stares blankly off into the darkened horizon of the planet. 

Shiro… had remembered him.

 

 

 

X X X

 

“So you’re saying,” Allura repeats for the nth time, her cadence even slower as she attempts to work through Keith’s story, “is that the _white lion_ came to _you_ to bargain for Shiro’s life?”

“Um. Yes.” Keith shifts uneasily. He’d finally spilled to his team about the events of that day, of why, exactly, Shiro could remember everyone else but Keith. “Even I forgot about the little stone thing, and I guess it fell in with my knife after everything that happened.”

“You gave him back a piece of his memory,” Pidge interjects, eyes wide behind her glasses.

“Well! Then we just have to find the other little buggers, don’t we?” Coran says enthusiastically. “So, where are they?”

“That’s the thing,” Keith replies, frustration making him pass a hand roughly across his face. “I _don’t know_ where the others went.”

The team falls silent then, and Keith finds solace in the fact that he’s not the only one at a loss here. But it’s a testament to how stubborn his team can be, because not a moment later, they’re scrambling to pile him with reassurances. 

“We’ll find them. We found Matt, we found Shiro--more than once--and now, we’ll find Shiro’s memories,” Pidge says resolutely. “I can help. The next time we find one, before we give it to Shiro, I can run some tests!”

“Those are his _memories_ ,” Hunk says worriedly. “Maybe you shouldn’t tamper with those.” Pidge merely clicks her tongue at him impatiently in response.

“It’s for science--I mean, it’s to help them!” she insists.

“Wild…” Lance says, shaking his head. “What kind of sadistic lion would do that to you guys?”

“I can imagine,” Allura says grimly, seemingly lost in thought. “Sacrifice seems to be a recurring theme, here.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing.”

“Either way, it gave me a way out of this mess,” Keith cuts in, resolute. “So I’m not stopping for anything. I’ll commit myself to Voltron,” he adds, thinking back to the time he’d left for the Blade of Marmora. “But the best thing about this is that once Shiro has his arm, he’ll be able to pilot the black lion too. If I ever need to head off and look for a shard, I--”

“So you’re planning on leaving?” 

The voice stops Keith in his tracks, and the group turns as a whole to find Shiro standing at the doorway, brow furrowed. The wolf stands by his side, ears pricked in delight at having Shiro and Keith together in the same room again. 

“Not… immediately,” Keith says slowly. He digs his hands into the plastic of the chair beneath him. “How was your rest?”

“Adequate,” Shiro says dismissively, waving his hand. “Could you guys excuse Keith and I for a moment? I’d like a word with him. In private.”

Keith remains on his chair, still as stone as the other paladins move away. A hand comes up to pat supportively against his shoulder, but Keith hardly registers it as Shiro comes up to stand before him. The latter looked like he’d cross his arms if he could. 

“Can you explain to me why,” Shiro begins slowly, “you’re suddenly in my memories of the Kerberos launch when we supposedly have never met before?”

Keith purses his lips, at a complete loss for what to say. He can’t afford to send Shiro into another bout of pain, not at the risk of losing what the memory shard had gained for them. Because that’s what it had been; a single sliver of one of Shiro’s memories of Keith. It was the first glimmer of hope Keith had seen in days, and he was _not_ about to lose it. 

“I never said that,” Keith says, doggedly avoiding a real answer. Shiro clicks his tongue in response, and a quick glance at his face lets Keith know the other man is beginning to look truly frustrated. 

“My own mind doesn’t seem like… well, mine,” Shiro says. “And to be frank, it’s really freaking me out. It’s almost like during the time I was in the black…” He pauses. “Why was I in the black lion…?”

Keith _knows_ what Shiro is talking about, and it kills him that he can’t explain. “Shiro,” he says, rising up out of his chair. It creaks at the shift in weight, cutting through the stillness of the air. Keith waits nervously until it settles, licking at dry lips as he prepares what to say next. “I know… I know that this all seems confusing, but I just need you to trust me. I need you to not ask anymore questions. You’re here, you’re alive, and that’s all that really matters.” _To me._

“You…” Shiro groans, running a hand through his hair in lieu of what to say next. “You’re so _confusing._ ” He leans in close, and Keith feels his face warm at the proximity. This was a face Keith knew like the back of his hand, yet every single time… 

“You say to trust you, but I don’t know you. At least, I assume I don’t?” Shiro throws his hand into the air. “Even so, I know what I remember. _You were there that day._ And you were important enough to be there, and I can’t remember why.” Shiro scowls. “And you know what the craziest thing is? I don’t even care that I don’t really know you. Some part of me trusts you wholeheartedly, and I know that whatever you do, I’d be behind you one hundred percent.”

Keith breaks out into a startled smile at that, despite the fact that Shiro still has a stormy expression on his face. “That means the world to me,” he tells Shiro sincerely. “More than you could possibly know.”

Shiro sighs, eyeing Keith’s grin almost resignedly. “And I’m never going to know, is that right?”

“Not unless I do things right,” Keith says. He leans even further into Shiro’s space in his eagerness, and this time it’s Shiro’s turn to crane his neck back. Is it Keith’s imagination, or are Shiro’s cheeks tinting pink? Either way, it doesn’t stop him from enveloping Shiro in a gentle hug, something Keith had wanted to do since Shiro had woken up after that terrible battle.

“Thank you for trusting me,” Keith whispers into his neck.

Shiro lets out a garbled sound, and Keith leans back, nose wrinkling in confusion. “Huh?”

“Nothing,” Shiro replies, sounding pained.

“Oh boy,” comes an amused sounding voice from around the doorway, and Keith and Shiro wheel around to stare at four sets of heads peering from behind the entryway. They’re only there for a second, before the other paladins (plus a guilty looking coran) disappear in the next heartbeat. 

Keith’s still confused when he turns back to an embarrassed looking Shiro, but no other feeling holds ground to the relief and affection he feels for the paladin in front of him.  
He was going to get Shiro’s memories back, no matter what the cost.

 

 

 

X X X

 

 

 

It’s a long while before the next time Keith finds one of Shiro’s memory shards. The black lion had veered away from formation on one of their patrols, alighting on a barren moon a little ways away from their original path. 

Something compels Keith to leap out of the black lion, the queries of his teammates going unanswered. It was nearly the same feeling that had driven Keith towards seeking the blue lion out, which had ultimately led him to Shiro. 

He finds the shard, one the size of his thumb, tucked inside a crevice. It takes him nearly an hour to pry it out, and Keith had been terrified it would break the entire time.

Keith all but crash lands onto the site of their current rebel base, the black lion’s maw having barely opened before Keith leaps out, making a beeline for Shiro. The black paladin was in the midst of redirecting camp supplies when Shiro caught sight of Keith’s excited face, dashing towards Shiro with something shining cupped in his hands. 

Shiro was quick to redirect Keith somewhere more private, before gritting his teeth in anticipation and plucking the shard from Keith’s palm.  
When he wakes, the first thing Shiro sees is Keith’s face, hovering over him excitedly. Shiro finds himself speechless, mouth opening and closing as he takes in the sharp angles of Keith’s jaw from such a close proximity. Again.

It’s short lived though, because Keith is quick to press Shiro for answers, eagerly questioning Shiro about what he remembered now. At this point, it was all too apparent what was happening. The shards were helping Shiro remember Keith. Keith was important, and had been important to Shiro, for possibly a while now. It was imperative that Keith explain nothing to Shiro (for reasons he couldn’t fathom), but the pure excitement in Keith’s face was enough reason for Shiro to accept the second shard without question.

“We were sitting by a campfire,” Shiro tells Keith now, and Keith’s eyes widen. “I was telling you that I wanted you to lead Voltron--”

“Which _I_ thought was stupid because nothing was going to happen to you,” Keith cuts in breathlessly. “But yeah, go on.”

“You saved my life,” Shiro continues on the tail end of a laugh. “Why does that feel like a common occurrence?”

“Because it is,” Keith says, sounding almost smug. But he freezes then, tracking Shiro’s eyes with something like fear.

“What?” Shiro says.

Keith waits a moment longer, before leaning back with a relieved sounding huff. “Nothing.”

Shiro smiles at the relaxed line’s of Keith’s body, something he’d rarely seen in the time Shiro had known him. Shiro feels his mouth turn down at the corners at the thought, and he leans back against the wall, letting his head bump a little against cement. ‘In the time Shiro had known him…’ And how, Shiro wondered, exactly long was that?

 

 

 

X X X

 

 

 

Pidge intercepts Keith the next time the latter gets his hands on a shard. Keith is incredibly excited, because the crystal is about the size of his fist this time. It takes the combined efforts of Lance and Hunk to stop Keith from sprinting for Shiro, and he practically bares his teeth at Pidge when the girl carefully cups the memory in her hands.

“It’s as light as air,” Pidge says wonderingly. “I can run some quick tests, which may help me track its source. If I can find a common link, I can--”

“You’re a genius Pidge, old news,” Lance says tightly as Keith jerks in his arms. “Can you please, maybe, hurry up a little?”

In the end, Krolia merely picks Keith up at the collar like a mother cat would a kitten, and Keith hangs in her grip, looking absolutely mortified as his friends cackle mercilessly.

“You’ll thank me later,” Krolia tells her son blithely. Keith merely groans in response, lifting his leg in an attempt to pull it away from his wolf’s playful nips. Krolia takes the opportunity to swing her son around like a chew toy, which he vehemently protests against, even more so when Lance and Hunk begin to take videos. 

“Done!” Pidge says some hours later, and Keith scrambles out of his mother’s grip, giving Hunk and Lance a retaliation shove as he passes. The second his hands are on the memory, he’s off again, mindless of the calls of encouragement from his friends and mother. 

This time, Shiro’s mid conversation with Allura, but at the expression on Keith’s face, they spring apart, Allura already moving away while tossing an amused sounding farewell behind her.  
Keith all but slams into Shiro’s chest, proffering the shard like a lifeline. Shiro’s hand comes up to grip his wrist, and Keith attempts to regain his breath for a whole new reason.

“Easy, Keith,” Shiro says gently. Then he splays a hand out for the crystal, eyes going wide at its size. They’re both excited now, and Keith watches anxiously as it shines, enveloping both paladins with its light.

Shiro doesn’t wake for another day, but when he does, Keith wishes for the first time that he hadn’t been the one at Shiro’s bedside.

“Adam--”

 

 

 

 

X X X

 

 

 

Keith lounges on a plastic folding chair behind Pidge’s pilot seat, watching aimlessly as she calibrates something into her lion’s controls. His eyes watch listlessly as nimble hands fly across the plethora of buttons and levers, and how the screen flashes different colors in response to whatever the green paladin decides to do. 

His heart isn’t broken. Keith thinks it’s been through too much at this point to feel something so trivial.

Besides, heartbreak probably wasn’t even the right word. He cares for Shiro, a lot, so shouldn’t Shiro remembering someone _else_ important in his life be just as good for Keith?  
(No. It really wasn’t, and Keith sours when he thinks about Shiro waking up, seeing Keith, and saying someone else’s name.)

“You’re being overdramatic,” comes Pidge’s voice, drifting over the seat. Keith pointedly ignores her. 

“Then again,” she continues, “I’m seeing a whole new side to you, with this whole memory thing. I can’t say I dislike it.”

Keith sighed. He’d chosen to sit with her while they idled in the base camp because of the quiet way Pidge liked to work. And because of the fact that she had the means to find a way to the other memory shards. Keith was _not_ here because he was hiding from Shiro. No, not at all.

“You should be more open with us too,” she continues, and Keith groans, loud. 

“Alright already,” he says sullenly, folding his arms. Keith tips back dangerously in the rickety chair. “Aren’t you busy? I can leave if I’m distracting.”

Pidge snorts. “Whatever happened between you and Shiro, I’m sure it’s not a big deal.”

 _Says you,_ Keith thinks. And then, _wait, yeah, it’s not a big deal._ “It’s not a big deal,” Keith echoes aloud. “I’m just here. To keep you company.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

Keith turns his head away, despite the fact that Pidge can’t see him. He’ll go down eventually, and speak to Shiro soon enough. Keith has to, if he’s going to be delivering shards to Shiro.

“I’m sick of your moping,” Pidge says suddenly, and Keith looks up in time to see her close out what looks like a messaging text box on her screen. “This is for your own good, okay?”  
Before Keith can ask what she means, there’s a popping sound, like something small imploding, a flash of light, and then his wolf’s paws are splayed across Keith’s chest. He yells, loud, as he feels his chair tip backwards into air, and then--

There’s twin sets of sharp, surprised huffs of air, and Keith finds himself landing on top of someone. Off to the side, Keith can see his wolf bounding away towards Krolia and Allura, who raise their eyebrows at him. With one hand, Allura slides a communicator shut before she takes Krolia’s arm and walks away. Keith groans.

“There you are,” comes Shiro’s voice, and Keith finds himself wanting to bury himself into a hole and to never come out. There are _two_ hands gripping at Keith’s biceps, keeping him in place, effectively trapping Keith against Shiro’s chest. 

Keith thinks his heart is about to hammer itself right out of his own chest as he feels the steady rise and fall of Shiro’s breathing right behind him.

“New arm?” Keith says weakly. 

Shiro makes a tiny surprised noise. “Oh, yeah. This morning. Which, by the way, would have been something you could have seen, if you’d stuck around. I was looking for you.” Shiro’s voice takes on a chastising edge, and Keith shrinks in on himself.

Unfortunately, that only presses his back further into Shiro, so Keith forces himself to freeze. _Do not move. No breathing._

‘Um,” Keith replies, eloquently.

A gust of air ruffles Keith’s hair and tickles his ear as Shiro lets out a disgruntled sigh. “So… can I tell you now what I was actually saying?”

“You can tell me anything,” Keith says honestly. Shiro’s grip on Keith’s arms lessens somewhat at that.

“When I woke up,” Shiro starts, “I was dreaming about the time I told you about my break up with Adam.” He clears his throat, loud, when it looks like Keith is about to interrupt. “I remembered. You were there from beginning till right up to my launch to Kerberos. The reason why the shard was so big was probably because it held all the memories of our meeting up till the launch.” Shiro sighs again, and his tone takes on a bemused quality. “You stole my car?”

Keith splutters at that. 

“ _Anyway._ All this proves to me is that ever since I’ve met you, you’ve been nothing but supportive.” Shiro sounds proud now, and Keith desperately wishes he could see the former’s face. As it was, it was taking all of Keith’s concentration to focus _only_ on Shiro’s voice. “If that memory of the time by the fire tells me anything, it’s that you’ve become an incredible friend throughout all these years. I’m lucky to know you.”

Keith remains silent, and squeezes his eyes shut, reveling in the wake of Shiro’s words. Progress. It was progress, and Keith was that much closer to giving Shiro back what Keith had essentially taken away. 

_Not that it matters,_ Keith thinks. _I would have taken Shiro any way. Memories of me, or no._

There’s a strange, strained sounding cough from behind Keith.

“Now that I’ve got that through to you, would you mind getting up? The ground isn’t that comfortable.”

Keith all flips himself upwards in his haste because, god, he’d been _crushing_ Shiro. Shiro merely looks wryly up at Keith, taking the offered hand and letting Keith help him up.

“For what it’s worth,” Shiro continues, “I seem to know how this works better than you do. I’m only getting memories of _you_ back with these things. I already knew about Adam. My _ex_ boyfriend.” The way Shiro says it seems heavy with meaning, and Keith stares at him, puzzled. Shiro rolls his eyes before patting Keith gently on one shoulder, and turning away.  
“I look forward to learning more about you!” Shiro calls as he walks out the door, leaving Keith a flushed mess in his wake.

 

 

 

 

X X X

 

 

Keith throws himself into shard hunting with renewed vigor. He refuses to let up on training, on working missions, and on seeking out Shiro’s memories, and he manages to devote equal amounts of attention to them. And in all cases, Shiro is almost always there.

Shiro, on his part, seems completely at ease with the pace at which Keith is making with his memories. While Keith nearly works himself silly looking for the next new memory, he often finds himself derailed by Shiro. Shiro, who wants to join Keith on another mission, or training cycle. Shiro, who wants to spar with Keith, and could Keith teach him that one move? (He only laughs when Keith tells him that it was _Shiro’s_ technique.) Shiro, who has plastered himself directly into Keith’s orbit almost constantly, and Keith is _living_.

“Don’t you look happy,” Allura says one morning at breakfast, and Keith gives her a quizzical look. 

“Huh?”

“Nothing,” she says airily, and Keith’s attention is soon derailed by Shiro plopping his tray next to him. Keith immediately berates Shiro for not grabbing enough greens.

They steadily find more shards, each one seemingly smaller than the last. It frustrates Keith to no end, but Shiro merely holds his hand out for Keith to drop the memory into, smiling happily as Keith awaits his verdict. Shiro no longer passes out with every new memory, and he’s quick to tell Keith about what he knows.

The time they went through team exercises when first attempting to form Voltron, Shiro tells him once, makes much more sense now that his memories have returned Keith to the picture. Food goo fights, and skirmishes. Even miniscule memories that Keith himself doesn’t even remember, like lounging in the paladins’ former castle (Keith’s heart gives a little twinge at that), or training with Keith in the simulators. 

Shiro has no memories of Keith during their time leading up to and after the fight with Kuron, and it begins to worry Keith that that memory may even be too harsh for Shiro to deal with. Part of him wonders if it’s better that Shiro _doesn’t_ remember. 

Still, Shiro seems more at ease around Keith than ever before, and Keith is terribly grateful for it. Part of him wonders if he could have ever rekindled that same bond with Shiro without all of the memories, and it still sends a pang of sadness shooting through him. Time and time again, he could have lost his best friend permanently. He glances up at Shiro, whose side has basically been plastered to Keith’s as they lounge on a makeshift seating area, all the paladins lazy and sweaty from an intense training session. The black paladin’s face is relaxed, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he smiles, and when Shiro catches Keith looking, Shiro gives him a little nudge. 

Something clicks in Keith then, a little pinprick of realization, and he’s glad that the lamplight is dim enough that no one can see the red he knows is beginning to tint his cheeks.

 

 

 

X X X

 

 

 

When Keith finds the next shard, he’s quick to realize that this one is unlike all the others.  
It calls out to Keith almost incessantly, and Shiro, sitting in the black lion’s pilot seat this time, blinks at him almost nervously.

It’s located in the worst place possible--even from the sky, the black paladins can see its gleam coming from the middle of a galra camp. They’re covered by the thick mass of clouds, but Keith isn’t sure how long he can will himself to stay undercover.

“It’s right there,” Keith breathes, looking at the magnified image on screen almost reverently. “It even _feels_ like the last one.”

“Keith,” Shiro rumbles, a clear warning in his tone. “It’s not safe. I say we give this one up.”  
“They’re using it as a power source!” Keith says, wheeling on Shiro. “I didn’t even know they could do that. I mean--don’t you feel violated? That’s _your_ memory down there!”  
Shiro’s mouth tightens, and he turns away to look at the screen. “Not really. I’m not willing to risk your safety for this.”

“For ‘this’?” Keith narrows his eyes. “Shiro… I promised you I’d get all your memories back.” He leans into Shiro’s space, willing his friend to understand. “I mean, I want to say I’m doing this for you, but… ultimately, I want you to remember me.” Keith’s voice grows weak. “I’d take you forgetting about me over your death any day, no matter what. But _this_ I have the power to fix too.”

Shiro’s grip tightens on the black lion’s controls. He shakes his head adamantly, turning back to glare at Keith. Despite the frown, Keith can tell Shiro is willing Keith not to go.

“The memory isn’t worth it,” Shiro responds curtly. “ _No_ memory is.”

Keith reels back, hurt and startled. “What--”

“Please don’t go,” Shiro says, his stare turning beseeching. “You’ve done enough for me already.”

Keith scowls and dodges Shiro’s outstretched hand. “You _know_ I always want to listen to you, Shiro. I want to work things out. But this is something I can fix.” Keith hesitates, before bracing himself on Shiro’s headrest and leaning down. Keith spares a single thought for lips that he knows are chapped, but all of his other thoughts are blown out of the water as he brushes his lips against Shiro’s. Keith moves away, before rethinking it and going back to press against Shiro’s mouth once, twice more. 

Keith backs away almost forcefully, eyeing Shiro’s stunned expression, to slide his helmet on, the hiss of air as it slides into place a final sound. “Something I can fix for me.”  
“Keith, _wait--!_ ”

 _No regrets,_ the white lion had said. 

_Nope, none,_ Keith thinks as he spirals down from the atmosphere, the way he’d done countless times before with the blades. Even now, Pidge’s lion reappears out of thin air, snatching him up in her lion’s jaws before her lion melts back into thin air, taking Keith down to ground level. 

 

 

 

X X X

 

 

 

“Ow, ow, ow--”

“If this is your form of a mating ritual, it’s a stupid one,” Krolia berates him, tugging none too gently on a lock of his hair even as she loops a bandage around his arm. “You think Shiro would be impressed by this? Look at you. We’re miles away from camp, and from a healing pod. This is all the tender love and care you’re gonna get, little hero.”

Keith remains silent, properly chastised. “It worked.”

“Mhm.” The corners of Krolia’s mouth turn up into a proud little smile before she cuffs him playfully upside the head. “Do it again, though, and I’ll kill you myself. Take me along next time.”

The black lion’s cockpit doors slide open, revealing Allura, Lance, and a disgruntled looking Shiro. In Allura’s hands, a crystal pulses a bright white light. Shiro seems to lean away from it almost imperceptibly, and Keith frowns. Without another word, Allura places the crystal into Keith’s hands, and with a ruffle of Keith’s hair, she whisks out the door, Krolia and Lance (who sticks out a tongue at Keith) not far behind. 

The doors click shut with a note of finality, and Keith squirms nervously under Shiro’s disapproving glare. With a glance down at his hands, Keith extends the memory like a peace offering.

“Here you go?”

With a snort, Shiro pushes forward and nudges Keith’s hand away, keeping a careful distance between himself and the crystal.

“Do you know _why_ I didn’t want you going after that thing?”

Keith shakes his head, seemingly realizing that he’s in for yet another lecture on Shiro’s memories from Shiro himself. 

“Memories,” Shiro says carefully, “can be made. If you were to ask me what I treasure most, I’d probably say the time spent with the people I cherish most, here and now.” He stares down at Keith, before his eyes narrow. “Even without the majority of my memories, Keith, I was growing to learn more about you. I was getting to know the person you are _now_.”

Keith gapes. “But still, we’ve been through so much together--”

“You think I value nostalgia over your life?” Shiro shakes his head. “No matter what memories you give me Keith, I’m pretty sure I’ve got a basic understanding of the person I like the most.”

“You… like me the most,” Keith repeats dumbly. “Um. Well.”

Shiro leans into his space, eyebrows raised. “I’m pretty sure no matter how many times I lose my memory of you, I’d find myself back to the same conclusion every single time.” Shiro shrugs. “You’re one of the people I care for the most, Keith. I doubt that would ever change. Whatever that memory holds will probably just make me like you _more_.”

Oh. Keith blushes profusely at that, but he wills himself to cup Shiro’s cheek with his free hand all the same. “I care for you too,” Keith says, “so much.”

He pauses. “But… before all this… there was something you were going to tell me. It seemed important,” Keith continues earnestly.

“Oh?” Shiro pauses from where he’d begun to inch forward, and his breath ghosts across Keith’s lips. “Do you have an idea?”

There is a very, very good chance that Keith actually knows exactly what Shiro had been trying to say, and his ears burn at the thought of repeating it. Still, he pilots a giant lion and forms a humanoid weapon with four other people. Keith can, presumably, handle a simple confession.

“You were saying,” Keith grates out slowly, and damn it, maybe he actually _would_ rather face a fleet of Galra than be dealing with the heat crawling up the back of his neck, “that you… lo…”

“‘Lo’,” Shiro repeats, cocking his head. His eyes are _way_ too wide to be truly innocent. 

“You said,” Keith continues through gritted teeth, “‘I love--’”

“I love you,” Shiro cuts in, and Keith all but melts into the press of his lips, the hand lingering on Shiro’s jaw tracing a line down to Shiro’s neck. 

They break apart, minutes or hours later, Keith isn’t sure, and find themselves entangled on the floor of the black lion’s cockpit. Shiro nuzzles into Keith’s neck and sighs out, raising goosebumps along Keith’s skin. 

“You can still have it, if you want,” Keith says, eyes straying over to the memory shard, laying abandoned a little ways away. “I mean, I did go to all that trouble…”

Shiro laughs, breathy and warm, against his neck. “Alright, you stubborn hotshot. Hand it over.”

They sit up, leaning heavily into each other, and Keith gulps nervously as he watches the light envelope them both, lighting up the dimmed interior of the black lion’s cockpit. 

Shiro sighs heavily, tipping forward to press his forehead against Keith’s, who catches him readily, as always.

It’s Shiro’s body shaking laughter that makes Keith start, and Keith pulls back worriedly. “What--are you okay?”

Shiro shakes his head, mirth making his large body quake with laughter, and Keith’s about to start feeling kind of insulted when Shiro cups Keith’s chin with his metal hand, pulling the other man forward to pepper Keith’s face with kisses.

Keith would be lying if he said he wasn’t enjoying it, but why was Shiro _laughing?_

“You said it first,” Shiro says, leaning back to regard Keith affectionately.

“What?” Keith asks dumbfounded.

“‘I love you.’ You said it first.” Shiro laughs when Keith scoffs and rolls his eyes, relief making Keith almost dizzy with lightheartedness. 

“Okay then, if you want to look at it that way. I recall also trying to pass it off as brotherly, so--”

“Brother-zoned!” Shiro cries out in mock horror. “You know, maybe I could have gone without that memory. Can you take it back?”

“Idiot,” Keith says affectionately, pressing a kiss to Shiro’s cheek. “I know better now. Took me a while, though.”

When he leans back, he finds Shiro smiling fondly at him. “I’d have waited for however long it took,” Shiro admits, entwining his hand with Keith’s. “Just like you’ve always waited for me.”

Keith quiets then, before leaning forward to gather Shiro into another hug. He presses his nose into Shiro’s hair, relishing in the fact that the man was here, and _alive_.

“Yeah, well,” Keith mumbles lowly. “For a love like this, I’d do just about anything.”

**Author's Note:**

> Extra:
> 
> “Even without my memories, I still found you very attractive. And how else am I supposed to feel when I wake up one day and find a very handsome looking man staring down at me?” Shiro frowns. “And you wouldn’t leave me _alone_. Jeez, Keith, you may not have meant to do so, but I feel like you’ve stolen my heart a dozen times over.”
> 
> Keith would have appreciated those words, he really would have, if Shiro had kept it between them in _private_. As it is, Keith can barely stop himself from shrinking down into his chair as he takes in the varying expressions of his friends--and his _mother_ \--from around the campfire during dinner.  
> Krolia takes a very audible, ripping bite out of a piece of alien meat. “You’ve got a way with words, kid. Almost as eloquent as Keith’s father.” She takes another bite. “Almost.”
> 
> Keith sighs, disgruntled, and melts into Shiro’s side.


End file.
